This invention relates to a telephone line tester in general and more particularly to a telephone line tester which utilizes a light emitting diode to determine whether the telephone line or the subset is at fault.
For sometime consumers are purchasing telephone subsets from many different companies and are using these subsets in place of original equipment. Conventionally, such a subset includes a connector which fits into the telephone line connector installed by a telephone company. Recently, the telephone company has been broken up into individual companies as is widely known. Based on new operating procedures, the telephone company, when receiving a service call, will charge a consumer a minimum service charge if, in fact, the subset is inoperable. In this manner, if the telephone line is functioning properly and the subset is at fault, the consumer will be charged a fee for the service call; and the telephone company will not repair the defective subset. It is, of course, apparent that the average consumer would not have any idea whether the fault in telephone service resides with the telephone line or with the subset.
Pursuant to this, the telephone company has spent a great deal of money in advising the consumer that a service charge will be made if the subset is defective. However, if the telephone line is at fault then the telephone company will repair the line at no cost to the consumer. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a simple and economical apparatus to enable a consumer to determine whether the telephone line is operating properly and hence determine that the difficulty is with the telephone sublet.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for an extremely simple apparatus which a consumer can utilize to determine a proper operating line with a minimum of difficulty.